Effective tactics, who has em?

[Strategy]

A couple of pointers:

- You need a balanced force. For a full stack, I'd go with something like 4 cavalry, 4 cannons, and 12 infantry.

- Artillery should be in the gaps of your line - not behind it (unless they are indirect fire). With a setup like the above, I'd probably do 4 inf, 2 arty, 4 inf, 2 arty, and 4 inf. Placing artillery behind your infantry is a good way to cause friendly fire, and you will be unable to use cannister effectively.

- Use cannister. Remember to control the artillery, so that they don't waste shots firing at enemy artillery far away. Turn every gun possible on the enemy's elite troops.

- Always have an infantry reserve. A two line system is excellent (remember to switch off the fire at will on the back line and to switch it on again when they move into combat). If the front line of troops get down to 50%, switch lines at the double.

- The AI will rarely engage all of your line at the same time. Swing your infantry round their flanks.

- Avoid getting obsessed by enemy artillery. They inflict very few casaulties, and can almost always be safely left until after you have routed all of his infantry.

- Never let your cavalry within reach of enemy muskets. You can (and should) use your cavalry to outflank and rout enemy infantry, but never do it when you can see that the enemy will be able to deploy into a firing line.

- Most important: Patience! Never move rashly, as it opens you up to enemy cavalry charges (the one thing that the AI can sometimes do well). Patience.

You shouldn't be losing more than 20 - 25% of the AI strength, unless the battle is veryy lopsided, and if with a proper (i.e., correctly tuned army stack), you should be more than capably of inflicting 1200-1300 casulties with only a few hundred of your own.